Abstract
The current study deals with the characterization of sunflower oil- and protein-based bigels for drug delivery applications. Span-40 was used as an organogelator for the preparation of bigels. The bigels were characterized by microscopy, XRD, thermal, texture studies and impedance spectroscopy. The microscopic studies revealed that the droplets were apolar in nature (organogels), while the continuum phase was polar in nature (protein hydrogel matrix). Incorporation of the proteins improved the stability of the bigels. The release of the drugs followed diffusion kinetics. The bigels showed good antimicrobial efficiency against E.coli and were cytocompatible in presence of L929 cells.